Panosarus 2.0

The Panosarus has a nostaglia feel to us at Pano Asia. It’s one of the first few “production” panoheads we used both commercially for our clients and on personal projects.

The packaging hasn’t change much. A few of those styrofoam beans. Opening it up and looking at the parts may still confuse you. (It did for us). Documentation is provided, a link is printed on a paper at the bottom of the box. The link could maybe has been the first thing one see when he open the box like being pasted on the opening flap as even when travelling to our address, it could have been slip to the bottom.

Build

Build quality of the Panosarus 2.0 has improved definitely. It is smaller than the 1.0 version and for the price, you can’t really complain.

Our Quick Release Plates

We can’t mention the Velbon quick release plates enough. We’ve gotten all ours including the newer models from Orient Photo everytime and we have around 8-10 now, some installed and left on in the 70-200 lens collar, some on a Nodal Ninja3 MK2 we have, on our NN R10. Install and forget! No matter what Pano Head you are using, it’s wise to have a few of these babies.

Bubble Level

We’ve issues with the bubble level but tester is a left handed and is used to having the camera shutter ready with his right fingers while holding down the pano head with his left while looking at the degree disc (Rotator assembly). In that way, the bubble level is block by the vertical arm to the right.

Not a big issue but good to know that we are level, most of the time.

No Click Stops

There is no click stop, that is a show stopper for us. We shoot fast trying to freeze a panorama and when needed, we do as little as 3 shots around with a 5DMK3 + 8-15mm @ 8mm. We do not want to be looking at the disc/ degrees all the time. We should be looking at what we are shooting and gauging if we should release the shutter as, at times, if someone is walking pass and depending on the rotation, clock wide or counter clockwise, that person may appear twice in the final panorama without masking/ photoshopping.

Keeping it small

Transporting the pano head (along with all his gears, tripod, lens, camera, others) is an important part for any photographer/ panographer. We don’t want extra weight budging us down trying to reach a view point to view some volcano. The panosarus when kept, is not seamless, the back screw on the upper arms unless removed, will not be able to kept nicely. Long term, we are afraid, it may bend the upper arms.

Fast Setup

More or less, quite fast. We left the whole setup in our Lowepro Photo Sport AW 200 series. Pulled it out, snap it on the tripod, snap on camera and we’re ready. The “built in” screw driver seems like a nice touch but feels really amateurish. Seems It’s included, trying to make it and “all in one” but that’s really non essential. Pano Heads are mostly setup and settings should remain unchanged.

The included socket for the magnetic screw driver. Cute…but not needed.

Upgrading

Camera upgrades are mostly the norm. You grow from using an entry level camera to a mid range one and soon, you are on full frame. Growing with the Panosarus shouldn’t be an issue, you can continue using it from a Canon EFS 10-22mm on a EOS 700D (as of writing), then a 70D and later a 5DMK3 with a 8mm lens/ lenses. This whole range and their Nikon counterpart of cameras will fit.

We did not test it with the full sized DSLR like the 1Dx, we’ll reserved comments on that for now.

Price

The panosarus has remained very affordable. As of writing, we can get it for as little at SGD$150.00. It’s quite a no-brainer if you want to start out shooting panoramas, the Panosarus is a great buy!

And so…

The Panosarus 2.0 is definitely an improvement from the Panosarus 1.0. The nice entry level price tag will allow anyone to start off panoramas without burning a hole in their pockets. No click stop doesn’t allow us to shoot fast enough but shouldn’t be an issue once you get the hang of it. The Panosarus 2 may not be the smallest or the lightest in the market but it is fully functional, allow you to shoot full 360 panoramas . The money you saved to start off your own pano journey can be put to a new fisheye lens or stitching software like the PTGui and Pano2VR.